Shadows at Midnight
by Well Widget
Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened and Donna accompanies the Doctor in the Crusader 50, where they meet some interesting characters.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

A waterfall of sapphires, in a planet so beautiful that it's only industry is _literally_ tourism. The Doctor thought that it would certainly be a safe place to take Donna. After all, no real alien rebellions or Sontaran attacks could happen on Midnight, while it was beautiful, the planet was too deadly to be useful for anything _but_tourism.

It had taken some convincing and promises of dinner and spa treatments to get Donna to come with him on the shuttle to see the waterfall, but the Doctor had one, and despite the fact that she slapped his arm whenever he began to bounce excitedly in his seat, he was sure a simple sightseeing trip would be just the break they needed.

"That's the headphones for Channels 1 to 36, modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juice pack, and complimentary peanuts." The pleasant hostess said with a smile that was all even, white teeth. "I must warn you, some products may contain nuts."

Donna rolled her eyes, which saved the Doctor from getting a Donna-Look when he quipped. "That'd be the peanuts."

The hostess seemed to be able to pick up the slack without even wavering though. "Enjoy your trip."

"Oh, I can't wait!" The Doctor replied. "Allons-y!"

Hostess looks did not hold the same kind of foreboding that a Donna-Look did. "I'm sorry?"

Still. what could he do but explain? "It's French. For let's go."

"Fascinating..." The Hostess replied, her smile somewhat more forced.

"You'd think she'd be a bit more friendly." Donna muttered under her breath as The Hostess moved on to the next pair of seats, and she swiped the juice pack from where it sat on the Doctor's lap.

The Doctor turned slightly, watching the pair behind them. The older man, in awful glasses that didn't make him seem the least bit smarter was lecturing his companion on the trip. ""They call it the sapphire waterfall, but it's no such thing."

"_You_said it was sapphires!" Donna hissed at the Doctor. "'Oh, come on, Donna! This enormous jewel, the size of a glacier, reaches the Cliff of Oblivion and then shatters into sapphire at the edge, then falls one hundred thousand feet into the crystal ravine - you said sapphires!"

"Well..." The Doctor said in his defense, trying to come up with something to deflect the blame, but the man behind them was continuing, and digging The Doctor into a deeper hole. "Sapphire's an aluminum oxide, but the glacier is just a compound silicon with iron pigmentation." He explains, laughing to himself.

Donna looks grumpy. "I could have been sunbathing, but now I'm on a trip the length of a school trip to see a waterfall of almost-sapphires."

"Come on, Donna, adventure!" The Doctor said easily. She looked like she would have responded, but the man who had gotten him into trouble in the first place, spoke, putting his hand over the seat. ""Hobbes. Professor Winfold Hobbes."

"I'm the Doctor, Hello." The Doctor said with a friendly smile. The man leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. "This is my fourteenth time!"

"Oh," The Doctor said, impressed. "It's my...well, **our**first."

The Professor Hobbes' companion jumps up out of her seat, all youthful enthusiasm, holding her hand out to him. ""And I'm Dee Dee. Dee Dee Blasco."

"Don't bother the man!" The professor practically scolded her, which annoyed Donna, as she had been the oft-scolded temp back at home.

"No bother," Donna contradicted him, holding her hand out to the girl, whose face brightened just a bit. "I'm Donna Noble."

She settled back into her seat, quietly tabulating the score at Professor - o, Donna - 1. Boss someone obviously working for him around her, she didn't think so. And the girl seemed so nice.

Had the Doctor known what she was thinking, he would have agreed, instead, he was looking around art the other passengers. Behind them was a family of three with a rebellious teenager who didn't want to sit with them, while some seats ahead was a few kids who couldn't have been more than fourteen. They were looking over pamphlets, discussing where in the leisure palace to at, but as if she had felt his eyes on her, the girl, all ginger hair and big brown eyes smiled at him, before turning back to her conversation.

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon," The Hostess announced moving to the front of the shuttle. "Welcome on-board the Crusader Fifty. If you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment." She spoke with some authority, apparently addresing the verbal interface and the passengers at the same time. "Doors." And then, "Shields down."

As the shields slid into place, she explained why to the passengers that looked a bit confused. "I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder. Midnight had no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear and should we need to use it, you first." She says it as if it was a sort of forced joke, and Donna felt herself feeling for the woman, remembering the flight attendants on her trip to Egypt, and how miserable they seemed. Some things didn't change, no matter what century you were in, it seemed.

The Driver came on, surprising Donna, who hadn't really been paying attention to the last thing the woman said, too busy wondering how she had gotten the job as the hostess on the Crusader Fifty.

"Driver Joe at the wheel. There's been a diamond fall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map." In response to the words, the map at the front of the ship showed the two routes they could possibly take.

"The journey covers five hundred kliks to the multifaceted coast. Duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for travelling with us and, as they used to say in the olden days, 'Wagons roll.'" The ship began to rumble, starting off on it's long journey.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

As the driver finished speaking, the Hostess held up a remote. For your entertainment, we have the music channel playing retrovids of Earth classics." There was a click and Raffaella Carrà filled the space truck. Another click of the remote and a holographic art-light show starts to play, as she explains, simply "Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovic Klein," two more clicks and a projection screen falls at the front of the vehicle. "Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat. The animation archives. Four hours of fun time. Enjoy."

In another situation, the Doctor would have liked the animation archives. He always liked children's shows, but all at once, it was too much. Top of the Pops on top of a light show would have been a bit much, but this was just more than he would tolerate. No wonder they provided earplugs. He, on the other hand, had a slightly more permanent solution.

He reached into his pocket for his trusty sonic screwdriver, but by the time he had started to extend the tip, the entertainment had sputtered to black, the retrovid player flipping back up into the roof. Shocked, the Doctor glanced around, as most of the passengers seemed just as confused. He tapped the end of the sonic, wondering if the psychic link between himself and his favourite tool had gotten stronger, or whether it was just as annoyed.

"Oi, put it away, Spaceman!" Donna scolded. "If that air hostess thinks it was you, who knows what she might do." Donna gave him a brief smile to soften her scolding words, however. "Thanks though. I was starting to get a migraine."

"Well, that's a mercy," Professor Hobbes remarked behind them.

"Uh, I do apologise, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon. We seem to have had a failure of the entertainment system." The Hostess said, attempting to click her control into functioning again.

"Oh," The Doctor murmured sympathetically.

"Well, what do we do?" The mother at the back of the truck asked, looking rather annoyed.

"We've got four hours of this? Four hours of just sitting here?" The father next to her agreed, seemingly voicing his wife's thoughts.

"Tell you what," Ten said cheerfully, turning around slightly so he didn't have to see his ginger compnanion's expression, "We'll have to talk to each other instead."

bNinety-Eight Kliks Later/b

Donna hanging over a seat, at the Doctor's side, sunbathing forgotten as the entire truck listens to the story, told by the two parents, Val and Biff, about their last holiday. Val and Biff are nearly in tears, while Jethro looked terribly bored, as though he had heard this story a million times. In fact, he probably had. Biff and Val even isounded/i like her parents after their holidays, when her Dad was still alive and Sylvia still managed to laugh.

"So Biff said, 'I'm going swimming.'" Val said, barely managing to hold back her laughter for what would be, obviously, the punchline of the story.

"Oh, I was all ready. Trunks and everything. Noseplug." He gestures at his nose, and The Doctor can't help but imagine a fluorescent pink one, just to make the story more amusing.

"He had this little noseplug. You should have seen him." Val agreed, waving a hand as if she was gesturing to something small and cute. She was trying to follow the story, but it was only making her homesick. So as they were explaining about Shamboni foreheads, Donna slid out and instead, flopped on the empty seat beside the talkative couple's embarrassed son.

"My parent's used to be worse." Donna said, by way of introduction. "They carried about pictures in my Dad's wallet and invite all their friends over for miniature sausages and a slideshow of their last business holiday."

The boy looked suitably impressed by her story, and nodded. "Jethro." he said by way of introduction.

"Donna," she replied easily.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

**One Hundred and Fifty Kliks Later**

"Would you like some coffee substitute?" DeeDee asked Donna and the Doctor, eyes still bright and excited despite the length of the trip already. "Or I think they may have tea, if we're lucky."

"Oh, we wouldn't want to impose." Donna said with a smile, even though she was quite thirsty, having drank both her own and The Doctor's juice packs what ifelt/i like ages ago. She had a soft spot for peaches, always had.

"It's not an imposition, I have to get the Professor his coffee, anyway. It's a bit boring, but you two could join me if you wanted."

"That sounds brilliant, DeeDee." The Doctor said enthusiastically, jumping up as if he was on springs, with Donna following after, shaking her head at his nearly inexhaustible energy. If anyone needed coffee, or space-age coffee substitute, whatever that meant, it was _her_.

"If you don't mind me asking," Donna prodded, as DeeDee handed her the paper cup full of some sort of space-tea, "but how did you end up on Midnight with the Professor?" He certainly didn't seem like the skeevy sort of bloke that Nerys had in University, who had invited her to holiday in Nice. (Which wasn't very Nice at all in Donna's opinion.)

"I'm just a second-year student, but I wrote a paper on the Lost Moon of Poosh, Professor Hobbes read it, liked it and took me on his research, just for the holidays." DeeDee handed the Doctor his space tea.

"Looks more like you're doing all the fetching and carrying and making sure he gets his meds in time more than any sort of research." She said, rather acerbically, as was her way. She so hated to see people get taken advantage of.

"That bit's true, but it's all good experience." DeeDee agreed.

"Did they ever find it?" The Doctor asked, much more interested in the astronomical mystery than his ginger-haired companion.

"Find what?" DeeDee asked, having left the talk of her paper behind.

"The Lost Moon of Poosh," The Doctor replied, as if it was obvious.

"Oh!" DeeDee said with a little laugh that was not quite a giggle. "No, not yet."

"Well..." The Doctor said in his long, drawn out sort of way. "Maybe that will be your great discovery some day." He held up his small blue paper cup, as if to toast. "Here's to Poosh."

"Poosh!" Dee Dee declared clinking her cup against his.

"To Poosh!" Donna said as well, giving the girl a smile and really hoping she _could_ do it.

**Two-Hundred and Nine Kliks Later**

"So, are you two travelling alone?" The Doctor asked as he dropped into the seat in front of the two teenagers hanging off the back, eager for another story.

The boy, all bright blond hair jumped in surprise. "We're together, so we're not alone."

"And we're planning on eating with my parents, when we get back to the Leisure Palace." The ginger-haired girl said, looking up from her book and closing it.

"They didn't want to come see the sapphire waterfall?" The Doctor asked, surprised.

"Almost-sapphire waterfall." Donna muttered under her breath.

"I uh...just asked them if we could go. Didn't ask." The boy replied, flushing a bit, making Donna realise, as only someone whose had dates been misunderstood and crashed before could, that he had meant it as a date, and they were intruding.

"Doctor," Donna said, feeling bad. "Maybe we should get some more tea..."

"We just had tea, Donna!" The Doctor told her, completely missing the signals as only daft men could, even spacemen. "Exploring and adventures over shopping and sunbathing! My kind of people. My name's the Doctor and this is Donna."

"I'm Mina!" The redhead said with a brilliant smile to the both of them.

The boy seemed a bit more reticent, as if giving his name might keep them around longer. "Adam." He said slowly.

After several more minutes of the Doctor chattering away with the pair, listening to a story about the woods, and finding out that they were, in fact, thirteen, Donna finally managed to pull hum away from the kids, almost by force.

"What was that all about Donna?" He asked, rubbing the arm she had grabbed and wrenched. "What's wrong with you?"

Donna decided, that sometimes, even with geniuses, you had to put things in small words. "They. Were. On. A. Date."

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah, can't be that. They're too young! They're only thirteen and Mina didn't mention it..." And then there was a Donna-Look. A Donna-Look he understood quite well. The one that said '_You're being an idiot, Spaceman.'_ Not convinced, but unwilling to risk his companion's wrath, they returned to their seats, The Doctor looking about for the next thing to do on the Crusader's long journey.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

Note: Thanks to those who read, especially those who review or subscribe.

**Two Hundred and Fifty Kliks Later...**

It was The Doctor's fault. Donna didn't know how, sitting next to Jethro in companionable silence as she read and he listened to his space-age-equivalent of an mp3 player. They spoke ever so often, but she understood more than most that sometimes you just wanted adults to shut up, and it had been longer than she would like to admit since she was his age.

Until, her attention was garnereed by DeeDee dutifully setting up something dreadfully familliar. She prodded Jethro in the side, and when he removed his earphones, she whispered. "It's the projector! Next thing you know they'll be passing out little minature sausages." It really did remind her of her childhood at first, until she realised that the Professor was going into teacher mode.

Donna had been a passable student but not great. She would often do the work, but not turn it in. She always thought it would be better to be seen as lazy rather than thick, and her mother had always criticized her grades, comparing her to Nerys, or one of Aunt Charlotte's daughters, who got perfect grades and were fit enough to rule field hockey at their schools.

Professor Hobbes had a voice like her A-level History teacher, the kind that made her feel exhausted and annoyed, like she had no idea what he was talking about. By contrast, The Doctor, while she didn't understand what he was talking about most of the time, spoke in such an electric, excited manner, and with such a nice voice that she would let him babble on, because the sounds were comforting.

Jethro leaned over the seat to see better, and up ahead, Donna could see the Doctor doing similarly. She couldn't see his face, but she was fairly certain he was pulling his _learning something about a mystery_ face.

"So, this is Midnight." Professor Hobbes said easily. "You see? Bombarded by the sun, extonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. DeeDee, next slide." He looked aside at the listeners, most of whom were watching keenly. "It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this, because, you see..." He sat down, lowering his voice just slightly as if he was sharing some great secret with them all, and despite herself, Donna felt herself leaning in to hear better, though she didn't know why.

"The history is fascinating. Because there is no history! There's no life in this entire system! There couldn't be. Before the leisure palace company, no one had come here in all eternity. _No living thing._"

Donna shivered. That was _creepy._ But it was more than just that, there was a crawling sensation almost, a kind of instinct that said that they should all just stop talking about this. It was the kind of feeling that before the Doctor, she would have drank away.

"But..." Jethro remarked, surprising Donna. "How do you know?" When everyone's attention to him flipped, he added. "I mean, if no one can go outside."

"Oh, his imagination, here we go." Val scoffed, reminding Donna strongly of Sylvia again.

"He has a point!" The Doctor said quickly, defending the boy, making Donna glad that they had come on this trip, if only for that.

"Exactly!" The Professor declared, as if it was a spiriteed debate in some space university. "We look at this world through glass. Safe inside our metal box, even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. Here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

There was that creeping feeling again, and as the Professor spoke, Donna moved out of her seat and up to where the Doctor was, even though he was so thin that there was no way his body heat, if there was any, could make her warmer. He glanced in her direction, and while still paying attention to the Professor, shrugged off that damn brown coat of his and draped it around her shoulders. Just as he did, though, the metal box they were in creaked and shuddered, the lights blinking ominously for a few moments before the truck creaked to a stop.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

* * *

"We've stopped," Val points out, a bit breathless as everyone copes with the surprise as best they can, the lighthearted atmosphere turning suddenly much more serious.

"Are we there?" Biff asked, looking to the Hostess for confirmation, support, or isome/i sort of explanation.

"We can't be. It's too soon." DeeDee jumped in, trying to ease her nerves with concrete facts.

Donna leaned closer to the Doctor. "I wanted a nice, relaxing day, Doctor."

"I'm sure everything is all right." The Doctor said, understanding her trepidation. After Agatha Christie, they needed a break. "I'll just go check it out."

And just like that, he left Donna alone, in her seat, clinging to his brown jacket. She didn't ineed/i him of course, but it would have been nice if he had been there. She would have followed but the poor hostess was obviously trying to stop him, and she clearly had none of the authority that he carried himself with. After all, she was only a temp from Chiswick. What could she do?

"No, they don't stop. Crusader vehicles never stop." The Professor repeated, sounding rather like he was clinging to his facts despite the evidence that they had, in fact, stopped.

"If you could just return to your seats, it's just a small delay." The Hostess said, as calmly as possible.

"Maybe it's just a pit stop," Adam, sitting in front with the other ginger on the truck, replied. It was rather obvious he was attempting to keep her calm.

"There's no pit to stop. I've been on this expedition fourteen times. They never stop," The Professor repeated.

"For a Professor, you're awfully dense." Donna snapped. "We. Are. Not. Moving. Lacking velocity, we cease to travel, no longer going in a forward direction, we have come to a rest. So would you kindly iput a sock in it/i."

"We've broken down!" Jethro added helpfully, almost gleeful.

"Thanks Jethro," Val responded, sarcastically. "See what you've started?"

It was on the tip of Donna's tongue to snap at her too, but she didn't say anything, merely wrapped the coat around herself tighter and growled.

"In the middle of nowhere." Jethro says again, winding up his parents quite clearly.

Mina, the ginger girl, got up, clearly nervous and probably unable to stay sitting. When the Doctor came back out, she cornered him, before he could even so much as take a breath. "What's wrong, Doctor? Why have we stopped?"

"They're just stabilising, happens all the time." The Doctor lied, trying to reassure her, putting his hands on her shoulder, seeing the kind of fear only someone who knew great pain could have in the child's eyes. "Nothing to worry about."

The girl drifted back to her seat, looking smaller and younger and pale, but at least a little reassured.

The Doctor moved back to his seat, not sure what to make of the whole thing, but wanting to think it out. Before he could adequately put his mind to the task however, there was a polite tap on his arm, so light he barely felt it.

"Excuse me, Doctor," DeeDee murmured quietly. "They're micropetrol engines, aren't they?"

"Now, don't bother the man." The Professor snapped.

"Let her talk." Donna insisted.

"My father was a mechanic," DeeDee informs them, almost apologetically. "Micropetrol engines don't stabilise. What does stabilise mean?

The Doctor kept his voice as low as possible, not want to alert the already stressed passengers.

"Just a bit of flim-flam, really, nothing to worry about." The Doctor reassured her.

"So it's not the engine then?" Professor Hobbes asked, voice rising.

"Professor, it's fine. Just a little pause." The Doctor replied.

"How much air have we got?" Hobbes asked, a little too loud and a little to shrill for a man of his size and age.

"What did he say?" Val asked loudly.

"Nothing!" The Doctor replied.

"Are we running out of air?" Val demanded.

And just like that, it descends into pandemonium. Most of the passengers are snapping at the Hostess, demanding answers, and the woman, who knew nothing, had no answers to give them, while trying her damnedest to stick to protocol. Donna and the Doctor are understandably, the only ones who can hear DeeDee's soft voice, and the Doctor's usual talking isn't getting them everywhere. "OI!" She bellowed, in her biggest and most impressive voice. "DeeDee ha something to say and iyou/i need to listen to her!"

The car falls quiet, everyone looking at the retiring student, suddenly preoccupied with pushing her glasses up her nose. "Um...I was just saying...that is...well, the air's on a circular filter, so we could stay breathing for ten years."

"And now if that's that, we can all just icalm down./i" Donna said with a nod.

"To speak impartially, both sayings are very true...man to man is an errant wolf. Thomas Hobbes, De Cive." Mina quoted softly, from where she was sitting, shivering to herself.

"And you young lady, can keep quiet." Donna added, with a grim smile. "That's not helping."

"Yes, ma'am." Mina replied, looking abashed.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who in any of it's forms.

Summary: A rewrite of a parallel world version of Midnight, where the difference is that The Library never happened.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, and/or followed.

* * *

**BANG!**

The sound startled all the passengers, Donna not least of all. She had no answer as Val questioned in a furtive and rather loud whisper, what the sound could be.

"It must be the metal. We're cooling down. It's just settling." Mr. Hobbes informed them all, a pompous tilt to his head.

"Rocks. Could be rocks falling," DeeDee offered up as well, the two scientists looking for a normal explanation to the noise.

"What I want to know is how long do we have to sit here?" Biff said, with a look of disgust at the Hostess.

**Bang** **Bang!** Came from outside the truck, as if in answer, nearest to the man's son, who despite his tough appearance, jumped.

"What is it?!" Mina, from the front of the truck demanded, curling closer to her date, as if her would protect her. It would be adorable, if her abject terror wasn't quite so obvious.

"There's someone out there." Val replied, worried.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hobbes replied, clinging to his facts and figures desperately.

"Like I said it could be rocks," DeeDee interrupted. "Diamonds falling along the sides of the car."

"We're out in the open." The Hostess admitted, looking as though she'd rather not admit it. "There's no way anything could fall on the sides."

**Bang Bang**

"Knock knock." The Doctor muttered under his breath, getting his trusty stethoscope out of his pocket, listening intently.

"It's them." Mina breathed, voice rough. "They're after us. They'll never let us alone." There was hysteria rising in her voice and panic on her face, and it made Donna worry. The girl looked as though she was about to keel over.

"Mina, we're fine!" Adam replied, taking hold of her roughly and giving her a shake. "It's nothing. Nothing can live on Midnight."

"I'm sure he's right." Donna offered, moving across to the pair and wrapping an arm around the girl who was visibly shaking. "And anyway, The Doctor will figure it out. He always figures everything out."

"Of course he's right!" The Professor said, almost violently. "The light out there is extonic. That means it would destroy any living thing in a split second."

The Doctor wasn't really paying attention, he only followed the noise as the interior of the truck shook with another loud **bang**.

"It's moving," Jethro points out. The door rattled and Donna wrapped both her arms around the girl as she made a sound of abject fear, burying her head in Donna's chest like any scared child naturally would.

"It's trying the door!" Val shouted, her own voice approaching panicky.

"There. Is. No. _It_. There's nothing out there. Can't be," Professor Hobbes insisted again, looking about at the women on board the truck like they were all about to have a fit and faint.

The sounds got worse, louder and more progressive, trying harder to get in, or so it seemed. The main door rattled.

"That's the entrance. Can it get in?" Val demanded.

"No. That door's on two hundred weight hydraulics." DeeDee replied, though her voice was slightly shakier than the last time she had spoken.

"Stop it. Don't encourage them," Professor Hobbes demanded of his assistant.

The Doctor was interrupted in his investigation as Biff approached the door, ignoring all warnings.

"Nah, it's cast iron, that door." Biff says, almost arrogantly, knocking on the door three times.

There's a slight pause, and then **bang** **bang** **bang** came from the outside, echoing the pattern.

Mina shrieked, making Donna hold her closer, and Adam put a hand on her shoulder, while the companion stared at the Doctor, mentally begging him to solve it all.

"Three times! Did you hear that? It did it three times!" Val shrieked.

"All right, all right, everyone calm down." The Doctor said firmly.

"It answered. _She_ sent it. It's the only answer. They're out there." Mina said, in a voice like a whimper. As if to punctuate her words, three more bangs came, moving across the ship.

"Back to your seats!" the Hostess demanded, attempting to take control, as best she could.

"No, don't just stand there telling us the rules!" Biff demanded. "You're the hostess! You're supposed to _do_ something!"

**Bang bang bang bang**

"She's coming to get us, Adam." Mina whimpered. "We didn't run far enough."

"Stop it!" Adam hissed, though not meanly. "Stop it, Mina. You're stronger than this."

"Shhh." Donna reassured them. More than anyone else, as close as she was to both of them, she could see how frightened they were, and they were just children after all.

Suddenly, the wall dents inward, throwing Donna and the two forward to the floor as the lights sputtered out.

"_Donna_!" The Doctor shouted in the darkness, his voice finally rising above it's normal calm timbre. "Donna are you all right?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who and am making no money from playing in the BBC's sandbox._

"Donna!" The Doctor called again as the truck pitched once more and went quiet. The adrenaline spike from whatever it was seemingly going after his companion shook him out of his calmer mein.

"I'm all right." Donna replied, brushing herself out and managing to untagle herself from the two teenagers who had fallen somewhat on top of her. "How's everyone else? Adam, Mina, Jethro, DeeDee...?"

"I'm fine." DeeDee called from somewhere near the middle of the car.

"Yeah, me too." Jethro agreed.

"All in one piece." Adam said brushing himself off slightly.

Professor Hobbes quickly returned to his new professions of making up explanations that made no real sense. "Earthquake, must be." How he still managed to sound relatively unshaken in this conviction after all that has happened shocked Donna to her core, and it distracted her momentarily. She stood, her arms sore, and took two steps towards the man before the truck rocked again.

"Aftershocks." He said, as Donna was jostled rather hard into a seat. Donna merely glared at him and opened her mouth, but her sure to be epic scolding was interrupted by the Hostess.

"Everyone take a torch. They're in the back of the seats."

Donna fumbled for the nearest seat, pulling out a rather bulky torch, and flipping it on. Intermittently, little beams of light flickered around the car as the passengers turned on their torches, casting the vehicle in a decidedly creepy dim light.

"Oh, Jethro. Sweetheart, come here." Val calls to her son, who is staring at the end of the car.

"Never mind me. What about her?" Jethro asked, gesturing to Mina, who was crouched, unmoving on the floor. "She's not moving."

"What's happened to the seats?" Val asked, taking a few steps forward.

"I don't know." Adam murmured, from where he was obviously trying to snap the girl out of it all. "She's not answering me. She's not even blinking."

Who did that?" Biff asked, more concerned about the shredded seats around where the two teens and Donna had been huddling earlier.

"They've been ripped up!" Val said, her voice getting louder again.

"Oh, so glad you two were here to worry about the sodding upholstery!" Donna bit out at them, before doubling back, and checking on the girl, worried. "Doctor!" She called, nervously. "I could use you over here."

The Doctor was distracted, and didn't hear all the commotion properly, or so it seemed. He was investigating the door lock, as the Hostess desperately attempted to contact the driver and trainee mechanic.

"I'm not getting any response," She says to the air, as the passengers alternated watching the two scenes. "Whatever happened must have knocked the intercom out." She slams her palm against a button, only for the door to slide up and be greeted by blinding extonic light. Shielding her eyes as best she could, she struck the button again, and the door closed before anyone was too adversely affected.

"What happened, what was that?" Val asked, crouching on the ground and pointing, a note of hysteria in her voice.

"Was that the driver?" Her husband added, sounding much more worried than he had before. "Have we lost the driver?"

The Doctor crept forward, torch in his mouth as he opened one of the power panels, sonic in hand.

"The cabin's gone." The Hostess said, in a voice that made it obvious that she was rather in shock.

"What do you mean it's gone?" The Professor sputtered. "How can it be gone?"

"You saw it!" DeeDee replied, voice thin.

"There's nothing there. Like it was ripped away." The Hostess murmured.

"What are you doing?" Biff called to the Doctor, shining his torch on the man, who was crouching at the panel.

"Ah, that's better, little bit of light." The Doctor replied, not answering the question. "Thank you, molto bene."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Val said, voice shrill, as her husband spoke over her with a "The cabin's gone, you better leave that wall alone."

"The cabin can't be gone." Professor Hobbes said, voice higher, and if possibly, more pompous, as if he was trying to convince himself as well.

"If you say one more thing that is obviously not true, Professor, I swear I will slap you." Donna shouted at him. "Isn't half of science observation?"

"It's safe," the Doctor said, annoying the fighting as he peeled away the panel. "Any rupture would automatically seal itself...unless something sliced it off." He stared at the wires, and then back at the panel, all of them sliced, not torn or ripped. "You're right, the cabin's gone."

"But if it is separated..."

"It loses integrity." The Doctor stood up slowly, keeping his eyes on the group. "I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust, the driver and the mechanic." He watched as the hostess took a few, startled breaths. "But they sent a distress signal. Help is on it's way. They saved our lives. We're going to get out of here, I promise. We're still alive and their going to find us."

"Doctor!" Donna called, from where she and Adam were still trying to get the girl to respond. "She won't respond."

The Doctor called for a medical kit and moved towards the three of them, Mina's hands around her head, as if to she were in pain, but face blank.

"What's her name?" The professor asked, looking around.

"Mina." Adam said, from where he was sitting, hand on her shoulder. "Mina Caligari."

The doctor knelt beside the girl, keeping the torchlight on her. After all, she had not struck out at her friend or Donna. "Mina..." He said, in a questioning voice. "Can you hear me? Can you move, Mina?" There was something of a mystery about it, and the fact that it seemed almost as though something had attacked a child, well it bothered him. "Just look at me."

"That noise from outside." Jethro remarked. "It's stopped."

"Well, thank God for that!" Val said, still skittish.

"But what if it's not outside anymore?" Jethro continued, almost as if he couldn't help it, as if he were afraid of the words himself. What if it's inside?"

"Inside?" Val repeated. "Inside where?"

"It was heading for her." Jethro explained, and in any other place and time, the Doctor would have been glad to have someone so clever about, but in this situation, it was only making things worse.

"Mina?" The Doctor said again. "It's all right, Mina. Just want you to turn around a bit. Face me better, so i can check and make sure you're all right."

Slowly, the girl turned, brown eyes wide and fixed on the Doctor, then quickly shifting to look at each of the passengers before focusing on the Doctor again. He tilted her head and she mimicked it. He turned his head the opposite direction, same thing. "Mina?" He asked softly.

"Mina?" She repeated, voice sounding lost and small.

"Are you all right?"

"Are you all right?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you hurt?"

"You don't have to talk."

"You don't have to talk."

"I'm trying to help."

"I'm trying to help."

"My name's the Doctor."

"My name's the..." There seemed to be a bit of an inward struggle, a shock-like thing going through her body before she finished the word. "Doctor."

"Okay, can you stop?" The Doctor asked, noting this.

"Okay, can you stop?"

"I'd like you to stop."

"I'd like you to stop."

"Why's she doing that?" The Professor asked.

"Why's she doing that?"

"She's gone mad." Biff said, without preamble.

"She's gone mad."

"Stop it!" Val demanded.

"Stop it!"

"I said stop it!" Val said again, voice getting more shrill.

"I don't think she can." DeeDee observed.

"I don't think she can."

"All right, stop it, this isn't funny." The Professor remarked.

"All right, stop it, this isn't funny."

"Everyone just shut up!" Donna yelled.

"Everyone just shut up!"

"Why are you repeating?" The Doctor asked, as everyone fell into silence.

"Why are you repeating?"

"What is that, learning?"

"What is that, learning?"

"Copying?"

"Copying?"

"Absorbing?"

"Absorbing?"

"The square root of Pi is 1.7724538509055160272981674833 41...wow."

"The square root of Pi is 1.7724538509055160272981674833 41..." There was another shudder, before the girl added "One."

The Doctor stared for a moment. "Mina, is that you, are you in there? Miss Caligari?"

"Mina, is that you, are you in there? Miss Caligari?"

"That's impossible." The Professor said, as everyone stared.

"That's impossible."

"She couldn't repeat all that." DeeDee murmured back to her mentor.

"She couldn't repeat all that."

"But she added on." Donna said, to the Doctor, confused.

"But she added on."

"And she was right too." The Doctor agreed. "So, maybe she's still there, behind whatever is repeating."

"And she was right too. So, maybe she's still there, behind whatever is repeating."

"She has to be." Adam said, a little bit desperate. "I'd know if she was dead."

"She has to be. I'd know if she was dead."

"Tell her to stop!" Val demanded. "She's driving me mad."

"Tell her to stop! She's driving me mad!"

"Just make her stop!"

"Just make her stop!"

"Stop staring at me." Val retaliated.

"Stop staring at me."

In the chaos, everyone starts speaking at once, and the girl just sat there, repeating word for word, without pause, only making the noise worse. The backup system snapped on, filling the truck with light and calming everyone down slightly, as if something so maddening in the dark was some how less so in the fluorescent, false light.

"That's the backup system." The Hostess said with a breath of relief.

"Well, that's a bit better." Biff retorts, holding onto his still shaken wife.

""What about the rescue, how long's it going to take," Val asks urgently.

"About sixty minutes, that's all." Said the Hostess.

"Then we all suggest we all calm down." Professor Hobbes said, trying to regain control. "This panic isn't helping. That poor woman is obviously in a state of self-induced hysteria. We should leave her..."

"Doctor..." Jethro murmured.

"I know." The Doctor replied, looking to Donna, who nodded, from where she was sitting, petting the girl's hair, comfortingly.

"Doctor, now step back." Professor Hobbes demanded. "I think you should leave her..."

Mina, who had stopped repeating, started again with the professor in sync, completing his thought, even after he stopped. "Alone."

"What's she doing? There wasn't even a pause. She was speaking directly with the professor, word for word. "How can she do that?"

"She's talking with you?" Val realised. "And with me. Oh my God. Biff what's she doing?"

"She's repeating," Jethro answers his mother, not taking his eyes off of her, as if she's a Weeping Angel in human form.. "At exactly the same time."

"That's impossible." DeeDee remarked, obviously not believing her own words.

"There's not even a delay," Professor Hobbes realises, again.

"How can she do that? She's got my voice! She's got my words!" A panicking Val accused.

"Everyone just stay quiet." The Doctor demanded. "Donna has it right. Just stay quiet." He moved to his knees right in front of her, voice soft, but loud enough to be heard, even without the echo.

"Now then, Mina, Are you Mina? Is Mina still in there? Miss Caligari?" Along with the echo, as if to answer his words, on the second question, her hand shot out and grasped the Doctor's like a plea for help.

"You are in there." He says with a smile, glad for that much, but still confounded. "You know exactly what I'm going to say. How are you doing that?" Curious he leans back and so does the body inhabited by something.

"Roast beef."

"Bananas."

"The Medusa Cascade."

"Bang!"

"Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, TARDIS."

If the Doctor was looking for something, it suddenly happened, because in that last bit, what the girl said was very verydifferent.

"Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Craig and Sophie, _Old Girl_." Mina stressed the words, and the Doctor stared as Adam, unseen by The Doctor, but noticed by Donna, slapped his forehead.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and read this little story.**

_For the last time, I don't own Doctor Who and am not making any money!_

* * *

"What?" The Doctor declared in amazement, the girl, almost sarcastically speaking with him. "_What?!_" He looked at Donna, who could offer up no more than a shrug. There was something wrong here. He didn't know what prospect was more terrifying - if it was the alien presence making itself known, or the girl whose body whatever-it-was had inhabited.

No one save his companions should know what a TARDIS was, let alone that he referred to his as Old Girl. One possibility was that the alien was stronger, had made a connection to his mind and was drawing the information from that - the other, that rather like Evelina, she had knowledge beyond the present. "Donna..." He said slowly. "Adam, let's all of us back away, very slowly."

"Why?" Adam demanded, in unison with his friend, who was a girl, but not his girlfriend. Nope, totally not a girlfriend, though the way he was holding her hand might suggest otherwise.

"First she repeats, then she catches up, now she's changing it and adding on - I don't know if that's the next stage or the girl inside. Either way, let's move to the back of the truck."

"Next stage of what?" DeeDee demanded, showing more backbone than the Doctor had seen from her thus far.

"It's not her, is it?" Jethro questioned. "It's not Ms. Caligari anymore."

"It is!" Adam insisted. "Mina's still in there! I can feel it."

"I don't think so, no." The Doctor admitted, as Donna tried to coax the boy away from his friend. "I think, the more we talk, the more she learns, the stronger link she forms between us."

"Come on, Adam. Let's just do what the Doctor says." Donna said softly. "If anyone can figure this out, it's him."

Val started sobbing in the back of the train, but the boy got more sturdy and resolute. The Doctor started pushing everyone to the back of the vehicle, Val begging him to make it stop. The Doctor ignored her, looking back to Donna, who was still trying to convince the boy to move, albeit as quietly as possible. "Donna, come on." He said, voice rising just slightly.

Donna walked backwards, not wanting to stop watching the scene which was rather heartbreaking. She felt rather than saw the Doctor pull her against him, and finally turned to face the rest of the group.

"Fifty minutes, that's all we need." The Doctor said softly, but firmly. "Fifty minutes until the rescue arrives." He turned, looking back at the girl, who seemed to be watching them. "She's not exactly strong, look at her, all she's got is our voices."

Adam, who had seated himself in the aisle, rifling in his bag, snorted at that, but said nothing.

"I can't look at her." Val said, shaking a bit. "It's those eyes."

"We must not look at goblin men." DeeDee quoted, making everyone look at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Biff demanded.

"It's a poem." The Doctor explained. "Christina Rossetti."

As if compelled, DeeDee resumed. "We must not look at goblin men,/We must not buy their fruits:/Who knows upon what soil they fed/Their hungry thirsty roots?'"

"Actually, I don't think that's helping." The Docctor remarked.

But Mina, or perhaps what was inside her, went on. "'Come buy,' call the goblins/Hobbling down the glen."

"She's not a goblin or a monster." Professor Hobbes tried to assure everyone. "She's just a very sick young girl!"

"Maybe that's why it went for her." Jethro theorised.

"There is no it!" Professor Hobbes declared.

"Think about it though, that knocking." Jethro said, having no problem apparently standing up to the older man. "It went all the way around the bus until it found her. And she was the most scared out of all of us."

"Fear, strong emotion." Adam murmured to himself, taking in Jethro's theory without appearing to be acknowledging them.

"Maybe that's what it needed." Jethro finished. "That's how it got in."

"For the last time, nothing can live on the surface of Midnight." Professor Hobbes argued back.

"Professor," The Doctor interjected. "I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of it's own, hmmm? Now trust me, I've got previous experience. There well may be some consciousness inside Miss Caligari, but maybe she's still in there, and it's our job to help her."

"Well, you can help, but I'm not going near her." Biff argued.

"No, I've got to stay back. Because if she's copying us then maybe the final stage is becoming us. I don't want her becoming me. Or things could get a whole lot worse."

"Oh, like you're so special." Val snarked.

"As it happens, yes I am." The Doctor replied, despite Donna smacking him in the shoulder.

"_Oi!_" Donna hissed. "Don't make it worse."

"So, that's decided, we stay back and wait." The Doctor said simply, tipping his head to his companion in acknowledgement to her advice. "And when the rescue ship comes, we can get her to hospital."

"We should throw her out." The Hostess remarked, voicing what probably more than one person was thinking.

"Are you insane? She's just a child!" Donna said, quickly jumping to her defence.

"I beg your pardon?" Professor Hobbes remarked, almost as horrified, but not quite.

"Can we do that?" Val asked, sounding more curious than boded well.

"Don't be ridiculous." The Doctor replied almost angrily, watching this spiral out of control.

"That thing, whatever it is, killed the driver and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet." The Hostess explained.

"She can't even move." The Doctor defended.

"Look at her." The Hostess responded, as Adam seemed to almost harden, moving closer towards his friend. "Look at her eyes. She killed Joe and she killed Claude, and we're next."

"She's still doing it." Biff said, pushing past the Doctor. "Just stop it!" He demanded, walking toward the teenager, sneering at the boy who blocked him. "Stop talking! Stop it!"

"Just don't, sweetheart!" Val begged from the back.

"But she won't stop!" Biff complained, moving back as Adam moved again to block him. "We can't throw her out though, we can't even open the doors."

"No one is getting thrown out!" The Doctor argued.

"Anyone tries to touch her," Adam said, in a low, dangerous voice. "And you won't have to worry about her, because I'll kill them first."

"Adam, stop!" The Doctor argued, seeing something almost frightening in the teen. "No one is killing anyone."

"Yes, we can. Cause there's an air pressure seal." DeeDee said, almost as if she had too, looking at the Hostess. "Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out, you had a couple of seconds, cause it takes the pressure-wall about six seconds to collapse. Well, six seconds exactly. That's enough time to throw someone out."

"DeeDee, what are you saying?" Donna said, horrified at the girl she had liked so much talking about something as cruel as that. "She's just a child!"

"Would it kill her, outside?" Val asked, curious.

"I don't know, but she's got a body now, it would certainly kill the physical form." DeeDee admitted.

"I said, no one is killing _anyone_!" The Doctor said, raising his voice and looking between the two opposed camps.

They ignored him. "I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we've got that one." The Hostess said, pointing at the fire door. "All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."

"Now, listen, all of you. For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, than what's it found? This little bunch of humans, what do you amount to? A murder? Cause this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?" The Doctor was good at talking, usually. He talked himself out of tight spots on a regular basis, and he thought, just maybe he had them convinced...for all of three seconds.

"I'd do it." The Hostess replied.

"So would I." Came from Biff, a second later, his wife replied, "and me."

"I think we should." DeeDee remarked.

Then, there was a sharp noise as a knife sliced through the air and embedded itself in the padding just past DeeDee's ear, making everyone turn. "The next person who says anything like that, it goes in the throat." Adam said coldly.

"Put those away!" The Doctor demanded. "No violence, no weapons!"

DeeDee looked shocked, and her dark eyes filled, partially out of fear. "I want to go home. I'm sorry. I want to be safe."

"What about her?" Donna demanded. "She deserves to be safe too!"

"You'll all be safe, any minute now, the rescue truck is on its way." The Doctor attempted to reassure everyone. "Violence is not the answer here."

"She's dangerous. It's my job to see this vessel is safe, and we should get rid of her." The Hostess said, taking a miniscule step forward, but unsure of the boy, who growled.

"Now hang on, I think, perhaps we're all going a little bit too far." Professor Hobbes remarked, on the side of what the Doctor considered sanity.

"At last! Thank you." The Doctor replied to the bombastic and rather full of himself professor.

"Two people are dead!" The Hostess shouted.

"Don't make it a third!" The Doctor rebuffed, turning to the other young man on the bus. The one who had figured things out so quickly. "Jethro, what d'you say?"

"I'm not killing anyone." Jethro replied sullenly.

"He's just a boy!" Val contradicted, glaring at her son for daring to disagree with her.

"What, so I don't get a vote?" Jethro asked, staring at his mother.

It shocked the Doctor that humans could sink to this, the species he had watched so long, that all of them could be so cavalier about murder. Murder of a new life form, something so strange and undiscovered. "There isn't a _vote_, it's not happening! Ever. If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get past me first."

There was a moment of absolute silence, wherein you could have heard a pin drop, before one horrifying word issued from the Hostess's mouth. "Okay."

"_Oi! I don't think so, Sunshine!_" Donna practically roared.

"Fine by me." Biff agreed.

Donna got a resolute set on her face, taking an almost protective step toward the Doctor, giving them all the look that the Doctor claimed could make Cybermen wet themselves in fear.

"Now you're being stupid. Just think about it! Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?" The Doctor defended, putting a hand on Donna's shoulder.

"Are you calling me a coward?" Biff challenged.

"You wanna get a good slap?" Donna responded.

"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Val challenged.

"I'm sorry, but... you're a doctor of what, exactly?" Professor Hobbes questioned.

"They weren't even booked in. Rest of you, tickets in advance. They just turned up out of the blue." The Hostess said, gesturing to Donna and the Doctor.

"Where from?" Val asked.

"We're just... travelling, We're travellers, that's all." The Doctor sputtered, watching the situation spiral out of control and trying to find the right words to diffuse it.

"Like an immigrant?" Val questioned.

"No, like newlyweds!" Donna barked at the lot of them, as the Doctor fumbled. "Honeymoon tour of the galaxy, that's all." She had no idea why she said it, except that everyone always assumed they were a couple and it seemed like the only way she could stop the situation from getting worse.

"He hasn't even told us his name." Val pointed out. "Why should we trust them?"

"Thing is, Doctor, you've been loving this." Jethro said, almost as if he had to.

The Doctor was so disappointed. "Oh, Jethro, not you too."

Jethro shrugged, slightly, feeling guilty. "No, but ever since all the trouble started, you've been loving it."

"It has to be said, you do seem to have a certain... glee." Professor Hobbes agreed. "Perhaps you could tell us your name, if you want us to trust you."

"John." The Doctor replied, catching himself before he could say 'Smith.' "Doctor John Noble."

Donna squeezed his hand as a sign of solidarity.

"His eyes are the same as hers!" Val pointed out, making everyone, even Donna, look at the Doctor's brown eyes and then at the girl's glassier chocolate brown ones.

"Now listen to me. Listen to me right now! Because you need me, all of you, if we're gonna get out of this, then you need me." The Doctor said, voice steady but tinged with the Oncoming Storm.

"I am _thick_!" Adam said suddenly, from behind them, everyone turning to look at him. "Emotion! It's all tied to emotion - Jethro said it, it was drawn to Mina's fear - look at the lot of you; it's turning you into fighting, paranoid things!"

"If that's true..." The Doctor said slowly. "If you're right then -"

"Then all we have to do is cause a strong emotional overload!" Adam declared. "No one has to die."

The chattering, the talk of murder stopped for a moment, as the crowd fell into silence and the Doctor rushed forward, kneeling in front of Mina. "But how do we overload her?"

Adam pulled another knife from his boot, and handed it over to the Doctor. "I've an idea." He explained, as the Doctor stared at the weapon, about to complain. "The bracelets she's wearing cover scarring - if you reopen them..."

"No," the Doctor said, shaking his head.

"Or what?" Adam challenged. "They try to kill her and I have to slaughter them all? What other option do we have?"

"I'd like to see you try, boy." Biff challenged, taking a few steps forward. "You think a puny little thing like you could hurt me?"

Adam sneered at him. "A big, soft man like you, all room service suppers and dull wits? Yeah, I can."

"All right, fine!" The Doctor shouted. "But no more violence." He gestured to Donna. "Donna, come up here, hold her."

Donna slid up to the front easily, moving behind the teenager, and carefully wrapping her arms around her, holding her arms, just in case she reacted.

The Doctor snapped off the thick leather bracelets that covered the girl's wrists entirely, and his breath caught.

Donna was horrified, and Adam averted his eyes. "What is that, Doctor?" She asked, eyes wide on the blackened, scarred skin, that still looked angry.

The Doctor traced them gingerly. The center had an odd cross in it, but he didn't comment on it. "Burns from Kalorian plasma restraints." He said, swallowing. "They never heal entirely." He felt a shudder go through the girl, and he wondered at it. "I...I don't know if I can do this."

"Then we throw her out." The Hostess replied. "We can't let that thing, whatever it is, reach civilization."

Bolstered by this, the Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." And then, he cut at the odd cross in the center, seeing the pain rather than hearing it from the way the girl's face contorted.

"It's not enough." Adam replied, desperate, searching his brain for something. He settled on it, and began to speak. "_Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam._"

The girl repeated, but shuddered as she spoke, as if she was seizing, fighting it, and the Doctor kept tracing, moving on to the other wrists, following where the cuffs had to have been.

Adam raised his voice, getting louder, forcing whatever was inside Mina to get louder as well. "With drawn swords, we ran through the city, nor did we spare anyone, even those pleading for mercy. Our feet were stained to the ankles with blood, not one was allowed to live, not the women, not the children." Everyone was staring at him, he could feel it, or at Mina, who was practically seizing, yet still repeating, her voice almost to the level of screaming. "_It was a just and wonderful judgement!_"

There was a scream then, wordless, and the truck rocked again as the lights went out once more.

Two hours later, everyone was seated in the second truck as the authorities questioned them. The Doctor and Donna sat across from Adam and Mina, the latter of which had her wrists bandaged tightly by emergency medics, and a blanket wrapped around her to fight off shock.

"How did you come up with it?" The Doctor asked Adam, staring at the both of them. "What made you think of an emotional overload of the brain circuitry?"

Adam shrugged. "Jethro brought up the idea of it being drawn to intense emotion, and if there's one thing I've learned from my parents, it's the value of emotions and the power of an emotional overload. A non-corporeal being in a corporeal brain, it made sense."

"You sound like him." Donna said, knocking her shoulder against her Spaceman.

"I'll tell you who really sounded like me." The Doctor said, looking at Mina. "How did you know Old Girl? And who are Craig and Sophie?"

Mina shrugged. "To be honest, I don't remember it much at all. It was...so cold. I could barely breathe. It was so cold, there in the dark, like seeing everything through a veil, even when I was fighting." She shivered again, pulling the blanket tighter.

"It's okay." Donna said, patting the girl on the knee. "It's all over now. We'll be back to the Leisure Palace soon."

Slowly, Biff came forward, looking abashed, his wife beside him. "Doctor..." He said slowly. "We just wanted to apologise..."

"No." The Doctor said firmly, interrupting, raising his voice so that the rest of the ill-fated passengers could hear him, his face hard, a mask of The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds. "None of you get to _apologise_ and_ feel better_ about this. No one is going to absolve you of the fact that you lot, when faced with something new and strange, were the most dangerous thing in that car." He turned and looked at them all. "Every single one of you has to live with the fact that you were willing to kill a child and someone else besides, out of nothing but pure and simple fear."

After discussing things with the Leisure Palace owners, Donna and the Doctor found themselves back in the TARDIS, the Doctor looking drawn and shaken. "Everything I've ever done for humans - you were right, it's beautiful and horrible too."

"At least the kids found love out of it." Donna said , leaning beside him on the console, and resting her head on his chest, listening to the thrum of his hearts. "And maybe now they'll learn. You had to give them the chance."

"When did you get so wise?" The Doctor asked, wrapping an arm around her, and taking more comfort in it than he would like to admit.

"Some bloke showed me the beginning of the world - how an evil alien spaceship of omnivorous fiance-stealing spiders created the Earth around itself, something devastatingly beautiful out of something evil."

For a long moment the Doctor was silent. When he did speak, his voice cracked. "Why did you say we were married?"

"No one's called John Smith." Donna replied. She held her breath until her chest hurt, feeling his shoulders sink, and then looked up at him. "And everyone always thinks we are. Maybe...they see something we don't."

The Doctor just held her closer as the TARDIS hummed comfortingly around them.

**End.**


End file.
